"My soul to-day is far away,Sailing the Vesuvian Bay!"
"My soul to-day is far away,Sailing the Vesuvian Bay!"
"Avanti!" exclaimed Rafael suddenly, and shook his head at a boy who was offering a pair of pearl opera-glasses for Mrs. Sprague to buy. Mrs. Sprague drew the back of her hand under her chin, tossing her head at the same time.
The little peddler laughed and showed his white teeth at the awkward motion of the American lady, but he did not insist that she should buy.
As for Edith and Rafael, they looked plainly astonished. "Why, Mother!" said the girl admiringly, "you are talking in a foreign language when you use signs. How did you happen to find out such an easy way to dismiss the little beggar?"
"I was driven to it," answered her mother. "These foreigners have cheated me out of half my money by asking me to pay so much for their wares. They will never take 'no' for an answer. That same boy has been trying to make me buy that same pair of opera-glasses for three days; but at last I have found out a sign that will keephim away. I have seen the others use it," she said with satisfaction.
"What does it mean?" asked Edith curiously.
"It means 'I will not take it at any price,'" said Mrs. Sprague.
Rafael, who had been laughing with great amusement while she gave this explanation, now said, "This language of signs is very convenient. We Italians do half our talking by signs."
Edith looked at him and shook her head decidedly. "Just listen!" she said, pointing to the groups of people gathered along the quay. These people were all talking in the liveliest manner imaginable, and there was a great babble of excited voices. Street peddlers were crying their wares, drivers were cracking their whips, and men in boats, on the water below, were shouting to each other about the price of fish.
"It is certainly the noisiest city in the world," Edith said; "but it is also the jolliest. I am going now to the stand where the public letter-writer sat waiting for customers yesterday. I will let him write a letter for me."
The three separated and Mrs. Sprague returned to the hotel, while Rafael went down to the quay to watch the fishermen. The water with its bustle and stir of life, its coming and going of boats, was like a breath of home to the boy.
Pompeii and Mount VesuviusPompeii and Mount Vesuvius
Edith and Rafael planned their trip to the top of Vesuvius for many days before the right morning finally arrived.
"The right morning is a bright morning," sang Edith one evening as she looked out at the stars; "and to-morrow will bring a bright morning," she added, so positively that Mrs. Sprague sent Rafael to buy the tickets, in order that they might be ready for an early start.
Although it was the last week in December the air was soft and warm, and the sun shone with the brightness of summer.
From Naples to the foot of Mt. Vesuvius there was first a drive of several hours, after which they went up to the crater over an inclined railway.
"It is like looking at the entrance to the underworld," said Edith, as they looked down into the great chasm which holds so much mystery and terror; and she was glad to take the train back to the foot of the mountain.
As they stood looking at the great beds of lavawhich poured down the sides of the mountain many years ago, Edith exclaimed, "How can any one dare to live near the volcano?"
Rafael turned to a peasant whose little farm was not far away, and asked him if he ever felt free from danger.
"Ah, no!" the man answered, lifting sad eyes and hands to heaven. "When I go to sleep at night I think always, before the light of the morning, the mountain, he may send his fire and stones to crush us all; who knows?"
"Why did the people of Pompeii live so near to Vesuvius, if they knew it might bury them?" Edith asked impatiently.
"They did not know it in the days when Pompeii was built," Rafael told her. "Vesuvius was supposed to be an extinct volcano then. It had not said a word for hundreds of years. Everything about it was green and beautiful, and its slopes were covered with forests and vineyards. It is not strange that people built the two cities near its base."
"What other city was built, besides Pompeii?" asked the girl.
"Herculaneum," answered Rafael. "None of the people felt any fear of danger in the two cities, although an earthquake destroyed some of the buildings in the reign of Nero.
"But in the year 79 A. D., Vesuvius suddenly woke up, and there was a fearful eruption. Ashes and rocks were thrown out of the crater with great force, and hot lava poured down the side of the mountain. The two cities at the foot were completely buried under the ashes, and thousands of people were killed."
"There was an eruption in 1906, which made many people homeless," said Mrs. Sprague, "and no one knows when there may be another.
"Pompeii lay buried for seventeen centuries, and people forgot that there had been such a city; when, after a long time, a farmer who was digging for a well discovered the ruins, and since then a part of each city has been excavated."
"I should like to know just how the people of Pompeii lived, and what they were doing when the city was destroyed," said Edith.
"You shall see the relics that were taken from the ruins and are now in the museum at Naples," her mother told her. "The life of the old Pompeiians has been studied from those relics and a guide can tell you just how they did their housekeeping and what their life was like."
Before she left America, Edith had looked forward to the smoking mountain of Vesuvius and the city of Pompeii as being the most wonderful part of her journey. The volcano, and the city whichlay buried under ashes for centuries, had been the goal of her desires.
"The army of boys bearing baskets of earth from the excavations at Pompeii""The army of boys bearing baskets of earth from the excavations at Pompeii"
"Wait until we see Vesuvius and Pompeii!" had been her cry whenever she wrote home. "Then I shall have something to tell you!"
But she turned her face away from the forbidding crater and the desolate beds of lava with a feeling of disappointment that was half fear.
"Perhaps I shall like better to go into the museum and see the curious things that were found in Pompeii," she said, as she searched for a bit of lava from which to have a piece of jewelry fashioned.
"Just think of having the whole world interested to know how the people baked their bread so long ago," said Rafael; and when they had returned to Naples, the children found it very interesting to visit the museum and imagine how the people lived in the time of Christ.
Then one day they went down to the ruined city, riding in a small car over a roadbed so loosely made that Rafael laughed about it, and Edith said it was only a toy journey.
But when they went through the sea-gate at Pompeii, passed the army of boys bearing baskets of earth from the excavations, and stood in the silent streets, Edith drew closer to her mother, and Rafael walked quietly beside them.
They followed the instructions of the guide andlooked obediently at the deep ruts made in the pavements of the narrow streets by the old Roman chariot wheels. They walked through the forum, and stood in the ruined amphitheatre.
At last Edith drew Mrs. Sprague into the lonely angle of a wall where they could see nothing of the crumbled houses all about them, the pavements, or the great stepping-stones in the streets.
"I want to go home," she said with a shudder. "I never want to see Vesuvius again."
She was plainly homesick. It was a sudden ending to the "long thoughts of youth" which had filled so many hours with bright anticipations; but she was in such a hurry to get away from the buried city that they took the next train back to Naples without even stopping to buy picture postcards of the ruins.
When they reached their hotel in Naples they found a foreign war-ship anchored in the bay.
"There is the old man-of-war threatening us from the land, and here is one in the bay," exclaimed Edith. "It makes me nervous!"
Mrs. Sprague saw that her daughter was tired. "We will go back to Rome to-morrow," she said.
"But I want to buy a lottery ticket before we leave Naples," said the girl.
"Befana will fill your stockings with ashes if you do," said Rafael.
"Everybody in Italy buys lottery tickets. Why should not I?" asked Edith perversely.
"I do it not," said Rafael shortly.
"That is because your wonderful king does not believe in it," she answered.
"Is that not a good reason?" asked the boy. He looked at her with the same expression he wore in Venice, when she spoke slightingly of the superstitions of his country, and as she knew him better now, she laughed and agreed with him.
"I did not really mean to do it," she said, and added, "Tell me more about Befana."
"How I used to shake in my bed when I heard her bell ring!" he said with a laugh.
"Did you really hear it ring?" asked Edith.
He looked at her drolly, answering, "Of course I heard her bell. And often I heard the sheep talking to one another on Twelfth-night; or at least I thought I did."
"Truly?" asked Edith in great delight.
He nodded, smiling mischievously at her unexpected pleasure in hearing of the Italian superstitions.
Befana is the Italian Lady Santa Claus. She is quite different from the fat, jolly man who drives his reindeer over the roofs at Christmas time.
While Sir Santa is short and rosy, Befana is dark and tall; and while the kind old gentleman leavessomething in every stocking, good and bad alike, this rather terrible old lady puts presents only in the good children's stockings, and drops bags of ashes into the others.
Instead of happening at Christmas, as with us, the Italian festival is celebrated on the eve of Epiphany, the sixth of January.
"Everyone is happy then," said Rafael, "and we shall forget Pompeii and the man-of-war which is always threatening it."
So the children began at once to plan for the Twelfth-night festival.
"Mother and I will make some peasant costumes for us to wear," Edith told Rafael, and added, "or you might wear a soldier's uniform and a cocked hat. The soldiers look so fine and march so well in Italy!"
"Come children, it is time to go to bed if we are to take the early morning train to Rome," interrupted Mrs. Sprague, who had been studying a time-table; and the children separated, little dreaming that every plan would soon be changed.
In the morning they wakened to find on every tongue the news of the terrible earthquake at Messina, and for many days it was Italy the desolate that filled their minds and kept their hands busy.
People who saw it never forgot the dreadful misery of the country at that time.
Edith and Rafael stood silent, as when they had walked the streets of the buried city of Pompeii, and watched the confusion of vessels coming and going to the South. Boxes and bundles of all sizes and shapes were piled high on the wharf, and supplies of food and clothing were being hurried to the suffering city.
Newspaper men, frantic to gather news which everyone wished to hear, hurried back and forth on the quay, filling Edith with indignation. "What difference does it make whether we know all the latest news or not?" she asked hotly. "All those poor, starving people must be fed."
Rafael watched the soldiers march through the streets, without the music of the band, and go on board the ships to follow the king's boat to thestricken island, and his heart yearned to go with them.
"Italy is accursed," he heard the superstitious Neapolitans moaning, but he shook his head. "Not while the king and queen live, and teach us how to help," he said to himself, and then he went to find Mrs. Sprague.
"I cannot live this idle life any longer," he said, as he had said it once before, in Venice.
And as his mother asked then, so Mrs. Sprague asked now, "What will you do?"
"I will follow the king to Messina and ask him to make me one of the patrol guard," the boy answered.
They were standing on the quay as he spoke, and could see a relief-ship which was getting up steam, ready to sail out of the harbor.
Mrs. Sprague was alarmed. She knew that the boy would not be allowed to go into the ruined city, and she felt sure that his mother would not permit him to go if she were there; but in the excitement it was possible for him to slip away at any moment, under the mistaken idea that he could be of service.
She put her hand upon the boy's arm to detain him, if indeed he needed to be detained, and said, "How can I make you see that it is not possible for you to be of any use there?"
A man in naval uniform, who was just about to step into a tender and go out to the relief-ship, heard her words and turned, looking into Rafael's face.
He smiled suddenly and held out his hand. "We have met before, when life was brighter," he said; and Rafael recognized with delight the man who had listened to the serenade at the Rialto bridge with him, that summer night in Venice.
"May I go with you?" asked the boy impetuously.
The officer looked at him thoughtfully for a moment. "Our ambassador has sent me down to see what Messina needs most," he said, "and I shall be gone but a day or two. I see no harm in taking you along; but there must be no nonsense about doing patrol duty."
So it came about that Rafael went to Messina and saw the ruin and destruction caused by the greatest earthquake in the history of the world.
He was back in Naples a few days later with a face deeply saddened by the suffering he had seen. "I could not do anything there," he told Mrs. Sprague, who was glad to see him safely back again; "but my friend, the naval officer, helped me to think of a way to be of service."
"I will help you. What are you going to do?" asked Edith. She had been busy every day, helping her mother collect food, clothing and medicine to send to Messina in the relief-ships; but she longed to do still more.
"I am going to make some tops," he told her. "I saw the king and queen doing with their own hands whatever needed to be done to help the poor people; and I can make tops and sell them. In that way I can raise a little money for the sufferers."
That was how it came about that, one evening a week later, a pair of picturesque peasants stood among the booths in the Circus Agonale, in Rome, selling tops. There were booths where peddlers sold whistles of every kind and description; but they two, Edith and Rafael, were the only peddlers of tops.
In all the din of the crowds that passed and re-passed, nothing attracted more attention and made more fun than the doll-tops which Edith and her mother had dressed for Rafael. Edith blew a great blast on her whistle, Rafael gave a piercing scream on his, and they had a little crowd of merry-makers around them in a moment.
Roman whistles are made of pewter, terra-cotta, or wood, in every shape of bird, or beast, or fish. Rafael had a bird-whistle, Edith's was a yellow butterfly, and the tops which they spun were dressed like dolls, in many fantastic costumes.
As he had said in Venice, so Rafael called to his audience in Rome, when he had a little space cleared for the performance, "Signor Rafael Valla will now present his troupe of trained tops!"
"It is for the earthquake sufferers," he had taught Edith to say in Italian, and she had no sooner said it than the tops were all as good as sold.
"It is a pity we had not time to make more," said Edith, when the last one was gone, and they were counting their gains in their room at the hotel.
"You would make a good business man, Rafael," she said suddenly. "The tops cost you only ten lire, and you have sold them for twenty times as much."
But the boy was tired and made no answer for a few moments. Perhaps the tops reminded him of home. After a little, he said, "I think my mother must be very lonely in Venice, when she reads of those who have been made homeless in Messina."
Mrs. Sprague looked at him wisely and nodded her head. "Edith and I must go home to America," she said. "Our friends will be worried about us, and will fear for our safety, after this terrible earthquake."
So they began to plan for leaving Rome at once. The keepsakes and treasures were all packed, thelast calls were made, and the night before their departure arrived.
"Let us say good-bye to the Eternal City at the Fountain of Trevi," Edith suggested to Rafael. "I have heard that whoever wishes to return to Rome, should go to the fountain on the last evening of his visit, take a drink out of the basin with his left hand, then turn and throw a half-penny into the water over his left shoulder. I surely wish to come back some day."
"And I," said Rafael. "Let us find some half-pennies at once."
It was a cold, clear, moonlight night, and the two children hurried through the streets, chatting merrily over their errand.
They passed an old woman carrying a scaldino under her shawl. "We shall need a scaldino ourselves," Edith said, "to warm our fingers after we have dipped them in the cold water."
A scaldino is a little brazier for holding coals of fire. The Italians carry one about with them in winter, and when they sit down they hold it in their laps or put it on the floor at their feet.
When they reached the fountain Edith stood still a moment, looking at the water. "I have had such a good time in this historic old land that I shall always be a good Italian," she said; "but I shall be a better American also."
"That is right," said Rafael. "And I shall read the foreign papers to see if you become a famous woman."
"I don't care so much about being famous as you men do," she answered. "But I shall read the foreign news to see what the great patriot, Rafael Valla, is doing for his country, and perhaps, some day, your good king may send you to the United States as ambassador from Italy.
"Let us wish it," she added, and dipped her hand into the fountain. "To Rafael Valla, the ambassador," she said with a smile, and drank the clear, cold water.
"To the Signorina, my friend," said Rafael. "I wish her happiness."
Tears sprang to Edith's eyes, and she held out her hand quickly for the half-penny. "Over your left shoulder, remember," she said, as she tossed the coin into the water.
"Over my left shoulder," Rafael repeated, and added earnestly, "We shall see Rome and the king again."
Ăp´pĭ [letter a with an uptack]n Way, a famous Roman highway.Ȃp´pĭ ŭs Clau´dĭ ŭs(clâ), a Roman statesman.ä̤ vän´ti(tē), begone.ƀăm bi´nō(bē), baby.Be fa na(b[letter a with an uptack] fä´nȧ), the Italian Lady Santa Claus.Bi an ca(b[letter e with an uptack] ăṉ´kȧ), a girl's name.Brin di si(br[letter e with an uptack]n´d[letter e with an uptack] zē), a seaport of south-eastern Italy.Cam pag na(cȧm pän´yȧ), a plain surrounding Rome.Căn´dĭ ȧ, an island in the Mediterranean Sea.Căp´ĭ tō līne, one of the seven hills of Rome.cä´rō, dear.Cȧ vour´ (vo͞or), an Italian statesman, died 1861.cen time (sän tēm´), a copper coin, the hundredth part of a franc.Çĭn çĭn nȧ´tŭs, a Roman soldier and hero.Çîr´ cŭs Ä gō näl´[letter e with an uptack], one of the squares in Rome.Cŏl ŏs sē´ŭm, an out-door theatre of ancient Rome.Cŏn´stȧn tine(tēn), the first Christian emperor of Rome.cŏn´tä di´nō(dē), a peasant farmer.Çȳ´prŭs, an island in the Mediterranean Sea.Dän´dō lō, a Doge of Venice, died 1205.Doge(dōj), the chief ruler in the ancient republic of Venice.ĕc´cō, look; behold.Flā mĭn´ĭ a̤n Way, a highway of ancient Rome.fō´rŭm, a market-place or public meeting-place.Ġĕṉ´ [letter o with an downtack] ȧ, a seaport of northwestern Italy.gŏn´dō lȧ, a boat used in the canals of Venice.gŏn dō lier´(lēr), a man who rows a gondola.Hẽr cū lā´nē ŭm, a buried city near Naples.Hō rā´ti us(shĭ ŭs), a Roman legendary hero.Jul ius Cae sar(jūl´yŭs sē´zär), a famous Roman general, statesman, orator, and writer; died 44 B. C.lȧ go͞on´, a shallow sound or channel.li di(lē´dē), sand-bars in the lagoon of Venice.Li´dō(lē), the bathing-beach of Venice.li´rȧ(lē), a coin worth about nineteen cents.li re(lē´ra), plural of lira.l'Ĭ täl´ĭ ȧ, Italy.log gia(lŏd´jȧ), a roofed, open gallery.mäd´re(r[letter a with an uptack]), mother.Măr´ȧ thŏn run, a twenty-six-mile running race.Mer ce ri a(mãr ch [letter a with an uptack] rē´ [letter a with an uptack]), a shopping district in Venice.Mĕs si´nȧ(sē), a city in Sicily, destroyed by earthquakes in 1908.mi a (mē´ȧ); mi o (mē´ō), my.Mi chael An ge lo(mī´kĕl ăn´j[letter e with an uptack] lō), an Italian painter and sculptor; died 1564.M[letter o with an uptack] rē´ä, the southern peninsula of Greece.Nē a̤ pŏl´ĭ ta̤n, pertaining to Naples.Păl´ạ tīne, one of the seven hills of Rome.Pa laz zo Vec chi o(pä lät´sō vĕk´kē ō), a palace in Florence.Pä´ō lō, a boy's name; Paul.Paz zi(pät´sē), an influential family of Florence.Pi az za(pē ät´sȧ), square.Pi az´za dĕl Dū ō´mō, the square in front of the cathedral in Florence.Pi az zet ta(pē ät sĕt´tȧ), little square.Pit ti(pē´tē), a palace in Florence.pō lĕn´ta, a pudding made of meal boiled in milk.Pŏm pe ii(pā´yē), a buried city near Naples.quat tro(kwŏt´trō), four.Ri äl´tō(rē), a bridge over the Grand Canal of Venice.Sän Gior´ġĭ ō(jôr), Saint George; a church in Venice.Sän Min i a to(mē nē ä´tō), a cemetery on a hill southeast of Florence.scal di no(skŏl dē´nō), a brazier.Scȧl´ĭ ġẽr[letter s with an downtack below], an Italian family of medieval times.si(sē), yes.Si e na(sē ā´nȧ), a province and city in Italy.Si gnor(sē nyōr´);Si gnore(sē nyō´r[letter a with an uptack]), Sir; Mr.Si gno ra(sē nyō´rȧ), Madam; Mrs.Si gno ri na(sē nyō rē´nȧ), Miss.Sträss´bu̇rg, a city in Germany.Tär´quin(kwĭn), a legendary king of ancient Rome.Tī´bẽr, the river on which Rome is situated.Tin tō rĕt´tō(tēn), an Italian painter, died 1594.Ti tian(tĭsh´a̤n), a famous Venetian painter, died 1576.Tre vi(trā´ve), a fountain in Rome.Tŭs´ca̤ ny̆, a province of Italy.Uf fi zi(öf fēt´s[letter e with an uptack]), a celebrated art-gallery in Florence.Văt´ĭ ca̤n, the Pope's residence.Ve rō´ nȧ(v[letter a with an uptack]), a city in northern Italy.Ve ro ne se(v[letter a with an uptack] r[letter o with an uptack] n[letter a with an uptack]´ z[letter a with an uptack]), an Italian painter, died 1588.Vē sū´vĭ ŭs, an active volcano near Naples.Vīl´lȧ Bŏr ghe´se(gā z[letter e with an uptack]), a villa near Rome.Vi´vä̤(vē), "long live!" "hurrah for!"
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